la vie en rose: the weeknd

Thursday: Went to Parc Monceau in the morning with my roommate and wow. I think I like it even more that Jardin du Luxembourg. And the fact that its like a 15 min walk from our apartment isn't too shabby either. After that I headed over to L'arc de Triomphe. Warning: mom and dad (aka the only people reading this) don't read this next thing. So being the clueless american tourist I am, I was unaware of the underground tunnel that goes between the metro and L'arc de Triomphe. A little background: the arc is in the middle of a giant roundabout and the only thing I'll say about drivers in Paris: 10000000 times worse than utah drivers. There are literally no lines on the road. Anyways, back to the story of me being clueless af: i assumed that you had to find a break in traffic and then sprint across the roundabout to the center. So I waited. And t never came. Finally I saw a (presumably) american family that looked like they had the same idea as me. So, when they started to sprint across in the middle of traffic? I went with them. hahahahaha one of the more stressful things I've done this past week. But hey: I'm still alive! Anyways the story (kinda) gets better. I was meeting 2 of my friends and they said they were under it but I didn't see them so I called and they told me about the tunnel so I went and found them in line in the tunnel so we could get our tickets (free bc arts card. i'm telling you: its magical) to climb to the top. They asked how the heck I was coming from the direction I came from and i told them and then they proceeded to tell me about the tunnel from the metro and how they were joking about me being able to find them really easily unless I wanted to get run over and run across. Was that story at least kinda funny? no? a waste of your time? ok. maybe it was one of those things you had to be there for. OKAY MOM AND DAD you can start reading this again. After climbing to the top and looking at the view we wandered over towards the Seine and the Eiffel Tower. So beautiful. And it was another beautiful day which made everything even better. We grabbed some dinner and it was prob the worst meal experience we've had (which isn't even that bad its just that everything else is friggen delicious) partly because the people didn't speak french really well and did not understand anything we asked them and partly because it was a complete rip off. Anyways rant over lets move on. The plan was to climb to the top of the tower in time to watch sunset, but our luck was that the top was closed when we went to buy tickets so we sat on the grass and chilled while we waited for the lights to come on. for like 2 hours. because it didn't even start until 10pm bc it doesn't get dark here till like 9:30. weird.

Friday: went to the Louvre with our group on a tour and it was so cool! just 1 question: why is the Mona Lisa so cool. I still really dont understand. Besides that being sightly (lol ok fine, VERY) underwhelming; the rest of the art was really incredible!

Saturday: VERSAILLES. not much to say bc speechless. I will tell you this though: 1) 10/10 would recommend going 2) its absolutely gorgeous 3) if you go you have to walk through all the gardens and over to the Queens Hamlet as well 4) eat at the restaurant thats in the middle of all of the trees and shrubs 5) I hope you ave the same waiter we had bc he was hilarious 6) which brings me to a side note: I don't get why everyone says that french people are rude. Everyone we've met has been super awesome

Warning: pictures don't do any of this justice. gee dangit. guess you will just have to come see everything for yourself.